"America, a country no older than a heartbeat"

So, since I have been here I have tried to do a bit of traveling, and really understand where I now live, the United Kingdom and a bit of Europe. Now trust me, that is a lot to accomplish in a year's time and on a YAV stipend. But I can at least start to scratch the surface, after all I am trying to have a better understanding of what it means to be part of a global community. And with Secretary General Kofi Annan, putting forth the challenge to the United States to be the leader of the United Nations, and this growing community, its only fair that I do my small share. After all "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country" paraphrasing JFK. Ok so I do have good intentions of becoming a global citizen, but I also just really love to travel and see everything I can. Since its cheaper to travel from England, why not take advantage of this opportunity? Well, my latest travels took me to Rome.

When I first arrived in West Bromwich, one of the women I worked with said to me. I dont really like the States, becuase it doesnt have any culture. I had no idea what she meant by this, of course we have culture, loads of it. And then when I was in Rome I understood. Its not so much culture she was speaking of its history. Yes we have our history but not the kind that spans back way before Christ (or the commonly known error, dependng on who you talk to).

In Rome I was blown away, by the Roman forum, the colliseum, and my favorite Trevi Fountain. I mean these sturctruces had been in existance before the US was even thought of. These cultures, traditions, have roots, that I can never understand, being from a baby of a nation. It's unbelieveable and awe inspiring.

Then this feeling occured all over again when I was walking through the National Gallery in London. I mean there were paitings that I saw which were more than twice as old as the US. Its actually kind of cool if you think about it to walk on streets that have been walked on for thousands of years, that could tell a story, that we may never hear, or only partly hear. It gave me goosebumps and a whole new appreciation for being from such a young nation turned super power. I thought of all those nations that came before us, truly a humbling notion.

So, now we just have to figure out how we can all work and learn together in this modern global community, while preserving, respecting and learning from the past, yet stepping boldly into the future. In the mean time I will continue to enjoy my journey inwads, and travels outwards. Cheers for peace! Chiao!

Make love not war, every cloud has a silver lining, World AIDS Day, just another day at the YM

Well it’s been a while and lots of action going on here at the lovely YMCA of West Bromwich. Where do I even begin? Well first things first, my group of residents, who I have been diligently working with to help empower, teach independence, and all in all try to do some positive self building, sort of blew up in my face. Let’s just say, (tongue in cheek) that this group of about eight residents, learned the lessons well and interpreted them in their own special way. They learned how to support each other, practice loyalty, be independent, and were def feeling empowered….maybe a little too empowered. This group of mainly girls, who were barely friends before, seemed to take the leadership business to heart, and in a way created a very intimidating gang at the YMCA Housing Project, and were being supported innocently enough by none other than yours truly. Oops! I guess next time I should remind them to use their power for good not evil “make love, not war”.

The story starts with an Ice Skating trip. It all seemed innocent enough, the residents came together, planned an activity and off we went. The only problem with Ice Skating is, people can get hurt, and of course one of them did. This created the bond between them, because they were positive that this boy in the pink shirt had pushed one of the female residents, ending in a fun trip for us all in an ambulance. It was like the Domino effect. This happened on Sunday, and things just got worse from there. The team leader of the RAP's (Residents Activities Panel) name popped up everywhere, and was constantly being associated with trouble. Next thing we know fences had been broken, alcohol was being misused (maybe even some pills/drugs), rooms had been trashed, people were arrested, and eventually about eight or so of my great RAP group, had been unceremoniously kicked out.

What was worse, is we had big plans for this group. They were supposed to help with World AIDS Day, bring awareness to the problems in Honduras, work on LPA Qualifications. Where did we go wrong? Did I do that? And then I remembered the word choices. We all make choices, and for some reason they felt powerful, invincible even (empowered oops!?), rules no longer applied to them! And as hard as it was to know that some of the residents who I worked so closely with were sleeping in a phone booth in front of the Y, I knew I had to uphold my supervisor’s position. They really had gone too far. I haven’t had a chance yet to ask them why, but I will. For some reason, they still feel like they can trust me, and speak to me when they see me. And I guess that even if things weren’t quite right, at least I did succeed in building relationships. Will they figure out they brought this on upon themselves? Leadership and bullying are not synonymous.

But all is not lost. Tuesday night RAP was scheduled to meet and Julian and I thought that for sure no one would turn up, but lo and behold there were five fresh new residents ready to plan activities; they were a bit older with different interests, but eager to be involved. Life goes on at the Y.

On World AIDS Day, December 1, 2006 (the residents had been kicked out the night before), the residents were supposed to release balloons, with prayer requests on them. Obviously this couldn’t happen as planned, as they no longer were allowed on YMCA property. I had to be creative and find a solution, this was too important a day not to participate and we had all the materials. Fortunately it dawned on our marketing director that there were many other people who also were a part of the YMCA community, so we involved staff, nursery children, and clients who use the gym. An awesome balloon launch was held outdoors to remember those who are dying or have died, those living with AIDS and those family and friends who are affected by AIDS. So all was not lost. There is a silver lining when you search for one and…..never a dull moment. Cheers!